Literally Graphic reviewed Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
Review of 'Snapdragon' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
The art is soft and energetic, the frames make the every day dynamic and interesting, and the colours are a bit muted but it is full colour.
As the summery indicates, while it's not an important part of the plot plot, gender (identity and expression) are important themes in the book. This is communicated largely through the way people are drawn, plus the way characters develop through the story, but is named in a brief but important mother daughter conversation. A great way of introducing more diverse gender to children through fiction without turning it into a PSA.
A diversity of sexuality is also woven nicely into the book. We also get some elder butch lesbian representation which I absolutely adored.
Obvious to me anyway, this book did remind me a bit of both Bingo Love and Kiss Number Eight, but in a way that was super light hearted and …
The art is soft and energetic, the frames make the every day dynamic and interesting, and the colours are a bit muted but it is full colour.
As the summery indicates, while it's not an important part of the plot plot, gender (identity and expression) are important themes in the book. This is communicated largely through the way people are drawn, plus the way characters develop through the story, but is named in a brief but important mother daughter conversation. A great way of introducing more diverse gender to children through fiction without turning it into a PSA.
A diversity of sexuality is also woven nicely into the book. We also get some elder butch lesbian representation which I absolutely adored.
Obvious to me anyway, this book did remind me a bit of both Bingo Love and Kiss Number Eight, but in a way that was super light hearted and adorable. Unlike in Kiss Number Eight, for example, where there was a heady mix of homophobia and transphobia that had to be worked through, Snapdragon and company only run into a very negligible amount of bullying that we move through rather quickly. And in Bingo Love I know some people's enjoyment was cut short by the messiness of the relationships and this book's timeline avoids that struggle of conscious entirely. Elder bi/pan representation? This seems very likely.
Race is obviously an important part of the book visually, if not plot wise certainly visually. Should it have talked about more? Assuming, as I am, that Lehy is white (although I could be wrong) it's probably for the best. It certainly would be worse to have gone further and done it badly. What do you think?
Class is presented in a very positive way. The daughter of a single mother who just broke up with a toxic ex and hopefully on her way into a much better relationship. There's a lot of times where Snapdragon is left to her own devices. This would generally be used to show Snapdragon as attention seeking and/or perhaps getting involved in "trouble" but it's not. Snapdragon's family is poor and her mother has to work a lot but Snapdragon understands this, they have a great relationship, and there's other chosen family elements that come into play and are wholly positive in her growing up.
Disability representation is played with a bit, with Leyh showing characters who seem like they might be sinister because of missing limbs etc. but they are cute and good.
And maybe it's because this year has been so horrible, and/or the age this book is targeted at I want to rate this book five out of five stars. So I will.